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| FishWire Coordinator: | Mark Cahill |
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| The Conventional Wisdom
This time of year, logic dictates that the rivers should be loaded with fish, and the colder waters of places like Boston Harbor should be less reliable. So much for logic!
Pam Ingham with her first keeper
I want to take a couple minutes to explain about our new tool, Photo Post. If you're a registered forum user, you can now upload photos for use in the FishWire and in the Photo Gallery. Just login here using your forum username and password. It's simple to use. Just browse via the browse button to locate the picture you want to upload on your computer, then enter a caption, an anglers name and a date. Then you select a region, a category and click submit. Then I will edit the photo and post it. That simple. Let's get on to the reports! Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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It's National Safe Boating week, which is a misnomer if I have ever heard one. Memorial Day, the day the yahoos with more horsepower than brains return to the water. You're going to need to be careful out there, as they surely won't. Usually at this time of year I write a column about boating safety, but my experience tells me that there will be a lot more to write on that subject next week with the litany of accidents that will happen over the long weekend. That's been the way the past two seasons. The only thing that might make this weekend difference is the weather is going to stink, which may keep the yahoos off the water and in the barrooms.Boston Metropolitan Regions
| NEWS |
| Fisheries piracy is on the rise. Check out this article from the Boston Globe. |
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Boston Harbor
Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters hit the water this week: Another Season Begins... Sunday, May 18, 2003: After a rather cold and unsettled spring, I left the house today with the temperature reading about 33 degrees and the hopes of catching my first bass of the season. This was a scouting trip and I was accompanied by avid hunter and fisherwoman Pam Ingham. We left the slip about 5:30 am and zipped across Hingham Bay to a favorite and usually productive spot. The surface water temp. in the Bay was @ 51 degress and the water temp. around the Outer Harbor Islands was @ 48-49 degrees. With an hour or two left of a dropping tide, I had hoped we would find some action. I noticed a small cluster of terns and decidied to investigate. To my delight, Pam hooked up first using a 3/8 oz. jig tipped with a small rainbow trout colored fin s fish. I took out my eight weight and tied on a small chartreuse/white clouser with gold flash. Then I was tight to a healthy though not huge fresh striper. Next fish was Pam's first keeper of the season measuring just over 28" in length. Once we lost the tide the bass were nowhere to be found. All in all, a good start to the season after a long cold winter and spring. BTW, bass were reportedly caught on the airport flats about the same time of the morning tide. Out front, there was decent cod fishing and schools of macks were feeding on very small bait (maybe shrimp) on the surface.
Pam's first fish of the day Monday, May 19, 2003: Very encouraging report from Capt. Tom Koerber who was fortunate enough to have the day off to fish. Tom found stripers feeding on small bait on the outgoing tide near the Inner Harbor channel. The fish were up for 3 hours right through the slack tide! BTW, a number of anglers got into some nice action late morning and early afternoon yesterday near the North Channel. The bass were busting on schools of macks but were somewhat picky as they wanted the real thing. Until next week, we'll see you out there... Satuit posts:
Stokhog confirmed the report with this:
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South Shore
DLWKFW posted on the forum: South Shore Rpt. 5/21 Looking forward to a long wet, windy weekend of fishing! DLW Rexhamer replied with this: Green Harbor Meanwhile, Capt. Dave Bitters of Baymen Outfitters in Duxbury had this report on his site: OUTSTANDING morning on the bay!!! To say we slammed them would be and understatement...!!! On board for this mornings charter was 2002 repeat client, Dean Romano of Framingham and his friend Stan Swier of Barrington, NH. Both anglers are skilled saltwater fly rodders and boy did they get into some striped bass fishing today! As we came around the Bug Light, we could see smooth and ripping water ahead and decided to give it a try. Sure enough, we picked up another fish in the chop and went back for a second drift and picked up another. We got hit and dropped a few more. As we were finishing out our second drift, I looked across the bay and could not believe my eyes: A huge cloud of birds with fish boiling below. Even from perhaps a mile away, we could see the water being ripped up with stripers slamming through the bait. I had Dean and Stan reel in fast and we headed for the blitz...! As we pulled into the blitz, it was like a dream come true. Several acres of fish had bait running for it's life on top and they were backing it into the shallows and having a feeding frenzy. It was just incredible! Nearly every cast got a hit or a hook-up. The majority of the fish were schooled bass but we also landed two fine keepers to 30"! All in all, it was a day you dream of on the bay. When we left, there were still fish busting all over, and we only saw one other boat on the bay all morning. Fish on! Capt. David Bitters
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North Shore
The guides are starting to hit the water. Here's a great report from Capt. Randy Sigler: The fishing around Marblehead is certainly showing signs of life. While we have been waiting these last few weeks for the bass to show up, we have been keeping busy on the cod fishing and chasing mackerel. During this time, we have noticed an incredible amount of herring in the area. Large, mature ocean herring everywhere you look. Lots of whales and Gannetts feeding on them. Hopefully this is a good omen for the season to come. Capt. John Pirie of Online Fishing Charters is back at it as well: Well the fish have finally arrived here in decent numbers. We had the Plum Island Report 5/20 Plum Island Report 5/21 Moved around a lot! Until we found an area outside where it was every cast for more than an hour...Big Schoolies too...most over 25" with the biggest going about 34"(All Released). I've got a great color Raytheon GPS/Depth/Fish on board and during the blitz (Ave Depth was around 30 feet of water with the fish on top) I noticed CLOUDS and Boy DO I mean CLOUDS of bait in the water @ about 20 Feet. I can't really say what they were...but if anyone knows for sure please share...My guestimate would be sand eels or herring... I've had the unit for a year and can read it pretty well...and I assure you it wasn't strippers, they weren't distict enough to be bass(I saw those for sure, but this was distincly different) ...they had to be either really small (Sand Eels) in clouds, or some type of roughly mackeral or pollack sized fish...To clarify it looked exactly like a school of macks or pollack looks. Would love if someone could ID this for sure. Everyone is predicting it to be a zoo out on the water this weekend...So everyone please be courteus out there...there are a lot of fish around to hammer... so play nice Good Luck, and I hope my reports help. Kayaker had this: Cape Ann GCwilk posts: Rockport - 5/19 |
Luv2fish posted:  |
The Merrimack River
Capt. Charlie Crue of Channel Edge Charters has been putting the new boat through it's paces... #2 Merrimack River Report 5-21-03 Last week we had some striper action for short periods but now the stripers can be found on any tide in large schools. Today they were attracting the attention of terns as they drove the small bait to the surface. As for what to use, for fly or lure, it goes like this: flies of white, chartreuse/white, olive/white are popular with these fresh marauders from the open sea. For lures, soft baits like sluggos or fin-s will do the trick. The fish today ranged in size from little 14-inch bantams to 30 to 34-inch middle weights. They were chasing the bait everywhere. In the morning with the outgoing tide they were along the channel between the #15 and #13 buoys. On the incoming afternoon tide they were active between the #11 and #13 buoys. Today just after the low mid-day tide we found stripers hitting hard near the toothpick and most of the fish were larger schoolies twenty inches or more. On our way back to the slip at the marina this evening my exhausted clients and I passed through schools of feeding bass. |
News!! The striped bass have invaded the Merrimack River! Stripers have arrived hungry and very actively chasing sand eels and anything else that looks like food.